Poor oral hygiene can lead to other problems throughout the body.
Many people see the mouth as a part of the body that is fairly isolated from health problems that may plague our other organs. In fact, it’s probably commonplace to feel that way. We visit the doctor for checkups and any bodily problems we may be having, be they sickness or disease, and we see the dentist for checkups on the state of our teeth and gums. Rarely is there an overlap in appointments.
However, as the “gateway” to the rest of our body, our mouths can often link to many other health problems that ail us. As WebMD explains, as bacteria builds up, it makes our gums susceptible to infection. This, in turn, leads to our immune system utilizing its resources to fight infection and cause inflammation. That same inflammation can have severe ramifications to many other parts of the body, and cause severe gum disease.
Be it diabetes (“Periodontal disease further complicates diabetes because the inflammation impairs the body’s ability to utilize insulin”) or heart disease (gum inflammation has been theorized to cause inflammation in the blood vessels), inflammation in the mouth is by no means isolated.
The state of your oral health can also often be a predictor of other health problems throughout the body. In an article describing the effects that gum disease can have on other areas of your body, the Mayo Clinic describes the mouth as a “window to your overall health.”
For these reasons, it’s incredibly important that (through healthy brushing and flossing habits, as well as regular visits to the dentist) we do not let bacteria buildup to dangerous, unhealthy levels within our mouths. It’s not just a pearly white smile that you might be compromising, it could be your overall wellbeing!